We've found fine Utah "cold smoke" powder conditions in the backcountry in the past couple days. The snow is generally stable, winds were surprising calm, and we did not see any drifting going on yesterday, even on the summit of St. Charles Peak. Cold air temperatures appear to be keeping the fresh powder nice for now, even in sunny terrain. The best conditions are found in sheltered northerly facing terrain with soft snow underlying the fresh powder.
The Tony Grove Snotel reports 10" of new snow from Tuesday. It's 7° F this morning, and there is 99 inches of total snow, with 131% of normal SWE. The winds at the CSI weather station at 9700' on Logan Peak are from the northwest blowing around 20 mph.
Today: Sunny, with a high near 18. Wind chill values as low as -9. West wind around 8 mph.
Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 5. Wind chill values as low as -8. Southwest wind 6 to 9 mph.
Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 27. Wind chill values as low as -3. Southwest wind around 10 mph.
Expect sunny and continued cold weather heading into the weekend, with a chance of a bit of snow Saturday night and Sunday morning. A productive storm looks to be developing for President's day and through next week, with significant accumulations possible state and possibly region wide.
We observed a few small natural soft wind slab avalanches in drifted terrain on Tuesday, and observers report triggering a few small loose powder avalanches on very steep slopes yesterday.
Saturday, skiers near Logan Peak in Mill Hollow remotely triggered a 8" deep and 60' wide wind slab avalanche that ran around 500 vrt'. Report is
HERE
For a list of avalanches in the Logan Zone go
HERE
Find a list of all recent observations & avalanches from across Utah
HERE.